Aidan was sitting in a tree that was outside of Kimiko's window. He wanted to go in there and talked to her, but it was probably best to let her be for the moment. Let things settle in. So he took off and return to the Ookami household. He flew through the living room window and could hear yelling upstairs. He flew up to the second floor and saw Yami's dad standing outside of Yami's bedroom.

"Yami, I'm sorry, but you don't have a choice in the matter!" his father shouted at him. He lost his patience. Moments ago he let his son be to let him cool off from their mini outburst from earlier. It didn't work.

"I'm not doing it!!" Yami shouted back. "And that's final!!"

"Um, sir," Aidan spoke up as he landed on Yami's father's shoulder. "Maybe you should try again later?"

"This is trying again later. He won't listen to reason."

"Maybe try tomorrow? Let him think things through?"

Yami's father just walked away from the door and went back downstairs. He sat back down in his chair and let out a heavy sigh. "I had a feeling this would happen. He didn't look thrill last year,when I told he would was chosen to take up the mantle."

"It's a heavy burden," said Aidan. "Plus he's just a kid. I'm sure he rather be with friends than protect the planet. Kids have it harder these days."

"Do you think that's why he won't do it? He refuses to tell me why he's against it."

"Most likely."

"I'll have to figure how to get him to talk.."

"Perhaps I can."

"Great idea! He seems like you," his father spoke with optimism. Then he decided it was time to change the subject. "Did you find the new Lunar Guardian?"

"Yes I did. It was girl. Judging by her school uniform she goes to the same school as Yami. They seem to be around the same age."

"What's her name?"

"I didn't get a chance to talk to her. She stormed off after the battle. I followed her home, but I thought it would be best to let her be for the rest of the night. I'll approach her tomorrow."

"Great," Yami's father spoke as he rubbed his forehead. He felt a headache coming on. "Sounds like she's in the same boat as my son.."

"Well in her defense this is new to her. Yami grew up in a household of magic."

"True. Well, Aidan it seems like you'll have to get these kids to accept their fates. I'll try to help you with Yami, but this girl is all yours."

Aidan just nodded his head. "I'll do my best, sir." He then flew off his shoulder and went back outside to hunt down some dinner. He'll talk to Yami later tonight.

Yami stayed in his room for the rest of the night. He didn't want to go down to dinner because he didn't want his father to nag him about his duties as a guardian. So he coaxed his brother Roko into bringing him food. Yami's family was made up of five kids. Yami had three brothers and one sister. Yami, Roko, and Ryoko were triplets. His two eldest brothers Duko and Kaze shared a room until Doku (the eldest) went off to college. Roko and Yami shared a room while Ryoko got her own room. It was pain in the butt to share a room with Roko. He could be such an ass. 

The bedroom door opened up and Roko came in with Yami's dinner. "Here." He sat the plate down on Yami's desk. 

Yami sprung up from his bed and grabbed the plate. "I'll give you your money, when mom gives us our allowances."

Roko just nodded his head and climbed up on his bed. Their beds were bunk beds. He grabbed his mp3 player from under his pillow and placed the ear buds into his ears. Meanwhile Yami sat back down on the bed and ate his dinner. As he ate Aidan flew through the bedroom window and landed on Yami's head. Yami made a frown.

"What is it Aidan?" Yami asked the little bird, after he swallowed his food. 

"You know why I'm here," the little bird replied.

"Yeah and the answer is no."

"Why are you refusing this? It is possible to live an almost normal life as a guardian."

"I just don't want to do it."

Aidan glared at him and started to peck his hand.

"Ow!! Don't do that!" Yami yelled at the little bird and moved his hand.

"I will, when you tell me the truth!!" Aidan then began to peck his head.

"Alright!!" Yami stood up and took a step back from the bed.

"Well?" Aidan sat down on the bed.

"I don't want to be a girl," Yami replied.

"WHAT!?" Shouted a voice. The bedroom door then swung open. It was Yami's father. He entered the room and grabbed Yami by his shoulders. " You don't want to become a guardian because it changes you into a female!?"

"Yes!" Yami pushed his father back. He wasn't happy that his father was eavesdropping on them. "I am a boy! It's stupid that I have to change gender in order use more power. Why can't Ryoko be the guardian?"

"Because the stars choose you!"

"!@$ the stars!!"

His father was not thrilled with his son's attitude. "Well you're just going to have to suck it up and protect this planet! It will take both guardians to defeat Shadi once in for all. Just so you know the gender swapping didn't bother me, when I was the guardian."

Yami just rolled his eyes and walked past his father and left the room. He didn't want to talk about this anymore. 

"Where are you going!?" His father shouted down the hallway.

"None of your business!!" Yami shouted back as he walked down the stairs. He then left the house at once. He needed to get away from his father. So he decided to chill in the park until his father went to bed.

Kimiko groaned as the alarm woke her up the next morning.  She did not want to go to school today. Her arms and legs were sore, and a quick swipe of her hand under her pillow told her the transformation wand still existed. This fact caused another groan to escape her. She had been holding on to one last strand of hope that yesterday's mishap in the park was a dream. Apparently not.

She looked across the room to where her brother was still asleep. This gave her two options: let him sleep while she got ready for school or vindictively pay him back for hitting her with a pillow yesterday and risk her mother's anger and be late for school. The second one was tempting, but she suddenly remembered setting the alarm a little early specifically so she could get ready and leave without having to talk to anyone. He was safe this time.

Kimiko took a quick shower, threw on some clothes, and grabbed the wand from under her pillow so she could stash it in her bag. She was not going to be the idiot that left that kind of power source lying around at home when any sort of demon could attack her. She doubted the magical talking bird could conjure up a new one if she lost it.

Speaking of Aidan, she wondered where the bird was. If she remembered the limited number of magical girl anime she'd seen, the mascot character always stayed with the leader. Except... he did say Celestial Guardians. As in, more than one. Which meant he was either going back and forth, or she was not the one he wanted to stay with. Meaning she was not the leader. Not that she should be surprised. She was a total newbie with this.

'I wonder if I should tell Sang...' She thought as she walked. Sang would act like it was one of her novels. Secrecy was probably the best policy here.

She arrived at school earlier than most student, even Sang, and ended up in a very empty classroom listening to her CD player as people slowly trickled in. The shock on Sang's face at seeing her there when she came in was priceless.

Yami woke up early the next morning so he could avoid talking to his father. He quickly got dress and ate a quick breakfast. He slowly walked down the sidewalk to the school. Yami was deep in thought about the whole guardian thing. He knew it was duty to protect this planet, but he dreaded the fact that he had to be a girl to do it. Plus it wasn't really his thing. He was lazy teenage boy not a fighter.

As he walked he spotted Jeremy up ahead. Yami pick up his pace to catch up to his friend. "Hey."

His friend turned to him and looked surprised. "Hey."

"What's wrong you look like you seen a ghost?"

"Just shock to see you up so early."

"Avoiding my dad."

"Ah."

"It's time for me to be a guardian.." Last year Yami told his friends about his family's magic. At first they thought he was crazy until he showed them some spells and Aidan. 

"Ouch. So the demons are attacking?"

'Yeah one did yesterday, but the new Lunar Guardian killed it.'

"Oh? Who is it?"

"Not sure I didn't ask Aidan."

Jeremy looked he wanted to slap Yami. "Don't you think that's important? They're your partner after all."

"I'm hoping they can handle things on their own.."

"I should tell you should help them, but this is none of my business."

Yami laughs. "Good. I don't need another person nagging me."

Both Jeremy and Yami arrived at school and made their way to the classroom. Eric was already there and was shock to see Yami with Jeremy. Yami just sat down at his desk and wrote the explanation for Eric. He handed it to him and Eric read it and just nodded his head afterward. Yami was relieved that his friends weren't going to pressure him into accepting his duty. 

The three friends talked for a bit until the teacher came in and started homeroom. After homeroom, classes started. During history class their teacher had them split up in pairs. They were going to work on a powerpoint presentation over a certain period in Japan. Yami got paired up with Kimiko and assigned them the Edo period. After the students were paired off, the teacher told them to get together and to start discussing their ideas. Yami grabbed his chair and pulled up to Kimiko's desk.

"Yo." Yami said to her. "So do you know anything about the Edo period?"

Kimiko held in a groan when their history teacher assigned a group powerpoint. The only thing worse was the fact she didn't get to pick her partner now that she had a friend to chose from.  Oh well. At least Yami was the least annoying person in this class.

She had to hold back a laugh when he asked her about the Edo period. "Sorry. I don't know much about history. I never really cared enough to learn it."

Yami wasn't happy with her answer. Believe it or not Yami was good at school. He didn't want his grades to suffer because of this girl. He hope she wasn't going to make him do all of the work.

"Well you should care," Yami replied. He grabbed her history book that was sitting on Kimiko's desk. He opened it up and turned it to the chapter on the Edo period. " I want a good grade. So you better start reading."

Yami then went back to desk and grabbed his notebook and his own history book. He turned to the Edo period chapter and started to write down key notes. "Be sure to jot down any thing you think is important."

Kimiko narrowed her eyes. She thought she heard Sang chuckle nearby. What was it with these people and grades? You would think their lives depended them. She ignored the voice in the back of her mind that reminded her that their lives really did depend on getting good grades because they actually cared about going to college. She'd have to amend her last thought about Yami being one of the least annoying people in class.

Her eyes wandered to the book he had opened to the Edo period on her desk. It looked long and boring, but she forced herself to skim it. Maybe he'd leave her alone if she took a few random notes. She jotted down a few notes around bolded words and called it a day.

Yami glanced at Kimiko to see how she was doing. He could tell she was BSing her note taking. Really writing notes around bolded words? Was she going to highlight random paragraphs too? Good lord this was going to be one hell of a project. 

"Oi," He spoke. "Actually read the chapter. Those words are bolded for a reason so there's no reason to take notes about them." He then showed her his notebook. "Try taking notes like these." He wondered if he should just do the project himself.

Kimiko rolled her eyes. This project was going to be the worse. She didn't even know how to take the type of notes he wanted.  There was a reason she wasn't good at school other than her complete lack of interest. She used the rest of the class trying to figure out what actually constituted as good note-taking while skimming the chapter.

She joined Sang once the bell rang and groaned. "I can't believe he made me read. And take notes. And act like a normal student."

Sang chuckled, "I think it's good for you. I've been trying to get you to study all summer, and you finally can't avoid it."

Kimiko narrowed her eyes at her friend as they stopped at their lockers. "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?"  Kimiko gave up when Sang nodded and they headed to their next class.

The rest of the day was uneventful. No more projects assigned yet, thankfully. She and Sang separated as the final bell rang.  Sang had a book club to get to. She wanted to work her way to president of the club despite her being a new member.  At least she had a dream.

Kimiko, in contrast, had no intention of staying any later than she had to. There weren't any clubs that interested her, and she wanted to get home before another demon decided to try and make her its lunch.

She was halfway home when a light weight landed on her shoulder. She instinctively tried to brush it away before looking to see Aiden. "Oh, it's you," she said as he dodged her hand with a protest and landed back on her shoulder.

"Yes, it's me.  I thought I'd see how you were doing and whether or not you've accepted your role," he answered.

Kimiko was quiet for a moment as she continued walking.  She had reluctantly accepted by the end of last night. That didn't mean she was happy about it. Did she really want to tell the talking bird that she would help save humanity? Finally, she sighed, "I'm fine.  Thanks for asking... I'm guessing even if I didn't accept this you'd continue to hound me about it, right?"

Aiden nodded, "Both guardians are needed to protect the world from the demons."

"So where's my partner, then?"

Aiden shrugged his wings, "I'm still working on Guardian Sol.  She can be a little stubborn..."

"But you said the guardians are usually born to one lineage. Wouldn't she expect to take over he position?  What's the hold up?" Kimiko asked annoyed by her partner's lack of concern. Here she was grudgingly accepting the role of protector of the world while her partner who was born into this role was slacking. What a load of crap.

Aiden sighed, "Sometimes it takes convincing even within an established line.  I'm glad you're willing, though. Someone needs to keep the world safe while Sol comes around."


Shadi scanned the street for what she was looking for.  She sensed him around here somewhere...  'There!' She thought as her eyes landed on the small, unimposing shop front of the local florist. Of course he would hide himself in the midst of many plants. Like hiding a tree in a forest.

A small bell rang as she walked through the door, but she barely registered it as the sense of thousands of other individuals washed over her.  She let a small vine grow from a nearby growth to her hand and bloom before walking past it toward the man tending the far wall.

"Welcome, how may I help y..." The florist dropped the sentence as he turned to look at her, his eyes widening in surprise and happiness.  "Shadi! You've escaped that seal."

She nodded, "It took a while. I'm surprised, Sam.  You didn't try to help me out."

Sam frowned and shook his head, "I couldn't find where the seal was. Besides, you know I don't have the magic to combat the seal of a Celestial Guardian. Especially a seal created when Guardian Luna gave her life to make sure it would hold. I'm delighted you were able to break it so quickly."

Shadi smiled coldly at the mention of the lunar guardian's death. "That Guardian Luna did not have an heir or extended family. So the one that my scout attacked was fresh blood?  She wouldn't know anything about how to deal with this?"

Sam shrugged, "She definitely wouldn't have the family knowledge behind her, but you know that phoenix wouldn't let her stay clueless for long. Plus, Guardian Sol will show up sooner or later."

Shadi was silent as she thought about this. "Then I'll just have to kill her before that happens."

Instead of going home Yami went to the mall. During school he decided that he wouldn't go home. So he'll need some supplies to live off the streets. He could have asked Eric to let him stay at his place, but he didn't want to be a burden on his friends. After getting everything he needed, Yami made his way to the park. There should be a nice place to camp out there. Before Yami could walk through the park's entrance. He felt a hand grabbed his shoulder. Yami turned and saw it was his father.

"Ugh!!" Yami cried out and pushed his father's hand off him. "Leave me alone!"

"No," his father replied. He noticed the camping gear Yami was carrying. He raised an eye brow. "Running away?"

"Yes. I'm going to live here now."

"Yami, that is the stupidest idea! You can't make a home in a park!"

"Of course I can. The hobos do."

"Because they have no choice!"

"Hmph." Yami crossed his arms.

"Don't make me get your mother."

Yami sighed and caved in easily. He knew his father wasn't bluffing. You do not want to piss off his mother. She will physically drag him home. "Fine, I'll go home, but shut up about the guardian shit."

His father roll his eyes. "I can't make any promises."

Yami glared at him and started his way back home. There had to be away out of this guardian business. His father followed right behind him and they walked he kept on talking about it. Yami did his best to tune him out. Once they got home, Yami went to his room and locked himself up. And because of that his father told he wouldn't get any food. 

Later that night Yami sneaked out of his housed and got dinner at the local fast food burger joint. He took his order to go and ate his dinner on a bench in the park. In the middle of his dinner Yami let out a sigh and stared at his burger.

Kimiko sighed as she watched Aiden leave a little later that night. They had gone somewhere private to talk about the history and powers of the Celestial Guardians. The bird was trying his best to prepare her, but it just seemed like an extra lecture she had to listen to. After hours of him trying to fill her head with important information, they both agreed it would be best to meet again tomorrow and he flew off to wherever he actually lived.

Kimiko looked at the crappy flip phone her mom had bought her from Walmart a few years back. It was one of those phones that she had to buy minutes for whenever she needed them rather than having a set plan (and texting was a real bitch), but it worked for checking the time. 

'Dinnertime...' She hesitated while looking in the direction of her apartment. She wasn't really ready for the cramped living space just yet. A walk would be better. She was near the park anyway.  Kimiko turned and headed toward the park. It would be a nice walk and there would be leftover food when she got home. A win-win for her.

She was about halfway through the park when her stomach started growling. The smell of a burger wafting on the wind did not help. Kimiko walked towards the smell knowing that she wasn't going to get any part of that burger but still enjoying the smell.

She stopped and moved out of the line of vision when she realized who had the burger. Her history partner...  What was he doing out here eating a burger around dinnertime?  His family was rich. Shouldn't he be enjoying some fancy caviar or something?  He looked kind of down instead...

She watched him sigh and stare at his food before walking up behind the bench and leaning on it to his left. "You look like you're really enjoying that burger," she said, hoping she surprised him enough to make him jump.

Yami did jumped. He turned to his left at saw Kimiko standing there. Yami was shocked to see her standing there. For some reason her green eyes were very bright tonight. He shook his head. Why did that matter all of the sudden? He glanced back at his burger.

"It's good.." he replied. "I'm just lost in thought that's all." Yami then moved to his right and motion her to join him. "You hungry? I bought four burgers and two large fries. There's plenty for both of us." After saying that, he just realized he over did it with the food.

Kimiko smirked as he jumped.  She couldn't help it.  He seemed like the type that would be easy to mess with. She quickly walked around the side of the bench and sat down as he motioned to the empty spot. It wasn't often she wanted to talk to someone other than Sang or her family, but there was something appealing about him when he wasn't forcing her to take notes.

Her mouth watered at the smell of her food and she quickly took the burger when offered. "Thank you!" she said, digging in a little too eagerly before remembering to respond to the conversation. "Did something happen?"

Yami wish he could tell Kimiko about the guardians, but she probably think he was crazy. Also she might laugh at the whole changing gender things. So he would just have to tell her half it.

"Just fighting with my dad," he replied. He then took a bite out of his burger. "We tend to butt heads a lot. So when we're mad at each other I leave the house." He took another bite of his burger. He deiced it was best to chance the subject. "What are you doing out alone?"

Kimiko nodded as she listened. She never really thought about the problems rich families could have. It seemed like rich kids always got what they wanted and were out of touch with normal reality, but here Yami was telling her he had a bad relationship with his father. Interesting...

She paused for a moment when he asked her what she was doing out alone. A good portion of that time had been spent with Aiden.  She could just say a talking magic bird was teaching her about saving the world from demons. No one in their right mind would think she was sane after that. Then again, she probably wouldn't have gone home right away anyway...

"I live in a two bedroom apartment with my brother and my mother. I love them, but it gets cramped and there's not much to do at home. I'd rather be out doing things than being at home," she answered before taking another bite of the burger.  It was delicious.

Yami frowned, when she said that she lived in a two bedroom apartment. That had to suck. He lived in a huge house and still can't away from his family. He can't imagine sharing a cramp apartment with his family. " Believe it or not it's still hard to get away from family in a big house. I have three brothers and a sister. My eldest brother is away in college so my second oldest brother has a room to himself. Then there's me, Roko, and Ryoko. We're triplets. Roko and I share a room while Ryoko gets her own. It sucks sharing room with a brother. Do you and your brother share a room?" Yami started to dig into his fries.